Searching For Local Search Terms With Google Trends

Go to Google Trends and click on “Explore.” You’ll see a dropdown box on the left side of your screen. The first label is “Search terms.” Click on the dropdown arrow and you’ll see “Locations” and “Time ranges.” You can enter up to five search terms for comparison purposes. After you enter your search terms, go to Locations.

The cool thing about Locations is you can narrow it down to your local area – within reason.

For instance, you can search for “attorneys” in the United States, or you can narrow your search to a specific state. Within each state you can also narrow it down to specific metropolitan areas. For instance, in Pennsylvania, there is a local area defined as Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, which is a fairly broad area.

Local search is a big deal. It’s growing more and more important everyday. And since you can’t really perform a local keyword search through Google’s AdWords Keyword Research Tool, you have to get a little more creative. Google Trends is a good opportunity for you.

If you are a local search marketer or local small business, use Google Trends for local keyword research.